We last had a chance to try Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 when Adam got to check it out back at E3 2016. While his hands-off demo focused on the story and hub world of Xenoverse 2, my hands-on demo was all about the multiplayer mode and how that embodies the signature explosive action of Dragon Ball Z.

The first thing I noticed when jumping into my first fight in Xenoverse 2 was that it looks extremely similar to the original Dragon Ball Xenoverse. While there hasn’t been a big graphical increase, your kamehamehas and galick guns still look incredible on screen and are incredibly satisfying to shoot at your opponents. One change that was definitely noticeable was the Ki Blasts, which now arc in the air instead of going straight at your opponent like in the first game.

The controls in Xenoverse 2 are largely similar to the first game, but the few additions that have been made have definitely improved the overall experience. The new Homing Dash is excellent for even faster dashing towards an enemy, the Aura Burst Dash lets you dodge incoming attacks while dashing and the snap vanish mechanic seems to be more responsive then before. The biggest improvement to how the game controls is the increase to 60fps, compared to the 30fps of the original game. The increase has helped make the overall game more responsive and fluid, making the entire experience better.

Combat itself was also incredibly similar to Dragon Ball Xenoverse, which makes perfect sense considering there was nothing really wrong with the original combat system. You have weak and strong attacks, which can be strung together in a combo, Ki blasts, throws and your standard guard. Every character also has a range of super attacks they can use, which is where the real flash and bang is in Xenoverse 2. Shooting giant energy beams and punching your enemy into the ground from 50 metres in the sky will always be fun to see and feels incredibly satisfying. As well as the super attacks, there are also ultimate attacks, which comes with a small cutscene-like scene before a massive devastating attack is launched. These super and ultimate attacks consume Ki, which is generated during combat and from charging yourself when possible, making sure that you can’t use them forever, but it never took long to be able to launch another attack.

There was a wide range of characters for me to choose from, so I was able to sample a number of different fighting styles during my time with Xenoverse 2. My first choice was Android 16, who fans of Dragon Ball Z might remember as being a rather large, hulking android who had quite the destructive power. He controlled as I would expect, moving a little slowly, with somewhat larger and rounder movements compared to some of the other characters I tried. I found that the slower, more calculated style of play required to use Android 16 wasn’t to my taste, but I could certainly see why others would love to use him. Dodoria also controlled similarly, showing that the bulkier character will be slower, as you would expect.

After trying Android 16 I moved to Future Trunks, whose smaller stature and faster movements more closely matched my preferred style of play. Quick and nimble, his attacks focused around his trademark sword, increasing his range a bit while keeping his attacks fast and furious. I was better able to interrupt opponent’s attacks with him, keeping myself from taking too many hits. My favourite character was Super 17, who I hadn’t heard of before, but moved incredibly quickly, could launch devastating attacks and was able to take a beating at the same time. Also, I just thought he looked pretty cool. Overall, there seems to be a large range of characters for people to sort through, finding the right one to suit their preferred playstyle.

Overall, Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 seems to be what I expected from a sequel to Xenoverse and what I personally wanted – more of the same, but a little bigger and with a few tweaks here and there. Dragon Ball Xenoverse was considered to be the best Dragon Ball game in some time, and it looks like Xenoverse 2 will incrementally improve upon that original formula.